Grammy and double-Emmy winner Kathy Griffin holds the Guinness world record for most comedy specials: 23 shows packed with her trademark scathing wit and merciless celebrity takedowns. But in May 2017 a provocative promo image of her holding the severed "head" of President Donald Trump changed her life forever.

We talk about how she survived having the machinery of state directed towards bullying her, when a Department of Justice investigation into "conspiracy to assassinate the President" led to her entire working life being cancelled. As you'll hear, the President's admitted attempt to "decimate her life" has only strengthened the resolve of this astonishingly powerful woman...

We also talk about sexism, marketing, seizing the means of production, and banging Tarantino!

Buy Fuck Trump merchandise and learn more about Kathy and her touring schedule at www.kathygriffin.com

Swaggering and slick yet positive and passionate, Imran Yusuf talks fast and funny, and dances around accusations of arrogance. The first free fringe act to be nominated for Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival, appearing shortly afterwards on Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, it looked as if the world was at his feet. But he is the first to admit he didn't capitalise on his success, and now takes a forensic approach to the business decisions and alliances he regrets. We talk about how his previous job in the video-games industry affects his quality control; uncover the dynamic between his work ethic and an "internal unworthiness", and discover his voracious attitude to personal development...
www.imranyusuf.com@ImranYusuf
Enjoy all extras from shows past and present with access to the private Insiders Club podcast, alongside a host of other strands and projects, including the chance to interview Stu yourself, and take part in a group critical analysis of newer acts from all over the world: www.comedianscomedian.com/insiders
Stu’s 2019 tour of “End Of” has just gone on sale!

Very funny, amazingly watchable, and offering genuine insight into his personal and social politics, Tez Ilyas is a Northern, working-class, muslim comic capable of going all the way. Exceptionally frank about his disappointment on being overlooked for award nomination, he goes on to identify the historic lack of diversity on the judging panel of one of the most highly regarded prizes in British comedy...

Dane Baptiste is raising the bar for articulate, socially-conscious stand-up, and pulls no intellectual punches in this conversation, which takes in chakras, Arthur Maslow's hierarchy of needs and transcendental perception... We talk about what it means to be the first black Briton to be nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award; why validation, gratification and dopamine aren't the end goal; and why he's a goofball.

In this first part of a two hour interview with one of the UK’s most respected comedians, Jimmy Carr reveals the inner mechanism of his bulletproof stage act.
We focus on his extraordinary ease with hecklers, his mastery of put-downs, and we learn some of the techniques he uses to mint hundreds of new jokes every year. But is he as bulletproof emotionally as he appears to be onstage?

With appearances on “Conan”, “Letterman” and “Totally Biased”, comic firebrand Hari Kondabolu has a lot to say, and the research to back it up. We discuss the New Yorker’s politicisation post-9/11; a comic’s license to simplify a political argument; and what happens when a healthy social life requires a bit of discretion. Hari also argues passionately against UK comedy’s fixation with producing a new fringe-ready hour every year, and we uncover that rarest of problems: when the crowd goes too wild…

Alarmingly successful for one so young, tender wee boy Daniel Sloss likes to get his teeth into an argument on stage. We discuss the pleasures and pitfalls of really committing to an angle, as well as learning who urinated on whose bag…

A strong contender for Stu’s favourite comic of all time, Patton Oswalt is a behemoth of invention, imagination and creativity. Live from Montreal, at which he won “Stand-up Comedian of the Year”, we discuss what lifts a comic above being “funny but who gives a fuck?” We also discuss issues of richness, legacy and whether the road gigs are worth it after all; but will Stu manage not to swoon like an Edwardian lady?